This morning we received downlink that indicated operation of the drill feed using standard commands. This is great news, and the anomaly response team has cleared the rover for use of the arm and driving (but not yet drilling). In today’s plan, we’ll wrap up work at the… Read More

The plan for Sol 1544 includes remote sensing and additional diagnostics to resolve the drill feed fault. The plan starts with a Mastcam tau and crater rim extinction observation to monitor dust in the atmosphere. Then we’ll acquire ChemCam observations of “Aunt Betty… Read More

The
Sol 1542 drill diagnostics did not complete as intended, and as a
consequence, neither did some of the later science activities.
Therefore, those tests and
activities from Sol 1542 will be planned again on Sol 1543. But
first, ChemCam will shoot its laser at a target near… Read More

While investigation of the drill anomaly continues, more diagnostic
tests will be performed on Sol 1542. Again, no mobility or other arm
activities will be planned, so the science team added only remote
sensing observations. ChemCam will observe Hunters Beach
again to further… Read More

The weekend plan returned some great remote sensing data, including the above Mastcam image of "Ireson Hill" to investigate the stratigraphy exposed in a distant butte. While we work on assessing the drill fault, the team decided to devote today’s plan to remote sensing and change… Read More

The RPs are going to take a little more time to diagnose the drill fault before we drive or use the arm again, so today’s plan is focused on targeted remote sensing. We’re still at the “Precipice” site, assessing the composition and sedimentary structures in the Murray… Read More

Unfortunately,
the much-anticipated rotary-only drilling experiment did not even start
due to a drill fault that is currently being investigated. This type
of drill fault appears to be unrelated to
the previous short circuits during
percussion, but more study is needed. So the… Read More

The cross-contamination experiment and cleaning of CHIMRA went well, so we are ready to drill into the Precipice target!
Past drilling activities have made use of both rotation and percussion, but percussion has caused intermittent short circuits
occasionally since Sol 911,
so on Sol… Read More

The
current drill campaign continues to go smoothly, and the Sol 1535 plan is
dominated by an experiment to see if any Sebina sample material is left inside the
drill bit chamber from the previous drilling. This is motivated by the
fact that we only used vibration to transfer that sample… Read More

Curiosity had a productive Thanksgiving weekend and now we are getting ready to drill at “Precipice.” Sol 1534 begins with MAHLI imaging of the post-sieve dump pile from the previous drill sample (“Sebina”). Then we have a short science block to acquire a ChemCam… Read More